Page 18 of The Broken Note

Mom laughs.

At the sound of her hoarse, impish cackles, Viola’s face fractures. I can see the childish hope crumbling inside her. All the beautiful castles she’d built in her head of mom, our family, all the ugly memories she’d swiped away to leave only the good ones, I see it shifting.

It’s funny how our perspective can be so far from reality. If we believe really hard that something is the way we want, it can become our truth.

But our truth…

Isn’tthetruth.

And the truth is that our mother is a lunatic.

I just didn’t want Viola to ever realize that.

“Mom, that’s enough.” I drag Viola away from the table and behind me. “You need to leave.”

Her laughter dies quickly. Mouth snapping shut, she gives me a sharp look. It’s frightening the way she switches on and off. Like someone possessed. Like someone who isn’t fully human.

“I already told you, Cadey. I’m not going anywhere. This is my home.”

Viola’s breaths are loud and panicked behind me. She’s shaking like a leaf.

I give her arm a squeeze, despite the fact that my heart is thundering inside my chest.

“Since you’ve been sneaking in here for a while, you already know that Vi and I have no money. All I have left is my school laptop and my phone. Pawn it for cash. Stay out of our sight.”

“Wait…” Vi squeaks. “That was mom who took my tablet and dad’s necklace?”

“Sorry, baby. I was in a tight spot. But mommy will buy it back for you.”

A humorless laugh puffs out of Viola’s mouth.

She used to believe that. She used to believe everything mom told her.

Yet another castle in the clouds falling apart.

“Why are you both so angry?” Mom’s head swings between us. Her voice is high-pitched, as if she genuinely doesn’t understand what the big deal is. “Do you know how many kids would love if their parents came back from the dead?” She taps a finger on the table. “I did it. I made that miracle happen for you. And you can’t even thank me?”

Acid burns my stomach.

I glare at her. “I’m going to ask you one more time, nicely, to leave.”

“And if I don’t?” Mom leans back, smug.

But I’m not the same girl who cleaned up all her messes and stumbled behind her while she dragged me into her low-life cesspools. While she painted nightmares over my piano and made every brush of my fingers on the keys turn to shadows.

I’m a student at Redwood now.

I went up against Dutch Cross and his brothers.

And I won.

I will doanythingto protect Viola and, by extension, I’ll do anything to survive so I cankeepprotecting her.

Folding my arms over my chest, I tilt my chin up. “If you don’t, I’m sure I can find some cops who’d be happy to escort you out.”

The smugness drains from her face.

She watches me with new eyes, fearful eyes.

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